Russian Federation (Rise of Russia as superpower)
Russia (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya), is a country located in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 117 federal subjects and five federal cities (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kiev, Sevastopol and Tbilisi). At 17,748,448 square kilometres (6,852,773 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the world's fourth most populous nation with 321,876,185 people as of 2030. Its capital and largest city is Moscow with over 25,550,000 residents, while Saint Petersburg is the second largest city with over 15,500,000 residents, Kiev the third largest city with over 8,750,000 people, and Novosibirsk the fourth-largest city with circa 5,660,000 people. The European Russia is one of the most heavily industrialized and densely populated areas in the world, with over 250 million people living in European Russia. Extending across the entirety of northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans nine time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. From northwest to southeast it shares borders with Finland, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the People's Republic of Poland (both with Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, People's Republic of China, Mongolian People's Republic, and North Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the United States via the U.S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait. The nation's history began with that of the East Slavs, who emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the medieval state of Rus arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus' ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states; most of the Rus' lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion of Rus and became tributaries of the nomadic Golden Horde. The Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually reunified the surrounding Russian principalities, achieved independence from the Golden Horde, and came to dominate the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history, stretching from Poland in Europe to Alaska in North America. Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic became the largest and leading constituent of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union, the world's first constitutionally socialist state and one of three recognized superpowers, along with the United States and Japan, which played a decisive role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first human-made satellite, and the first man in space. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian SFSR reconstituted itself as the Russian Federation and is recognized as the continuing legal personality (the sole successor state) of the Union state. Despite the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia managed to retain its status as one of the world's three recognized superpowers, only thanks to the Russian economic miracle of the 1990s and the climate changes, which have made the permafrost being absence and revealed immense stores of energy resources and precious minerals, as well as potential farmland. This made Russia the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas, as well as the world's bread basket (controlling the planet's food supply). The Russian Armed Forces remains today the world's largest military force, surpassing the United States Armed Forces. The Russian economy ranks as by far the world's largest national economy by both nominal GDP and by purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2030, with an estimated nominal GDP of $50.31 trillion and $51.71 trillion by purchasing power parity (PPP). Russia is the largest national economy and the wealthiest country in Europe, surpassing Germany. It is the only country with an GDP above $50 trillion. Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources, worth over $75 trillion and by far the largest reserves in the world, have made it one of the largest producers of oil and natural gas globally. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. The Russian Armed Forces is the largest military force in the world, surpassing the U.S., with the world's largest air force and its navy being among the three largest ones in the world. Russia operates the world's largest fleet of super-heavy and very heavy aircraft carriers, with ten active super-heavy and very heavy aircraft carriers. It is the only country apart from the U.S., Japan and People's Republic of China with an modern strategic bomber force. Russia is the world's foremost global superpower and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the G20, G8, the Council of Europe, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (ASEAN), the leading member state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) along with the People's Republic of China, the Eurasian Economic Community (EEC), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as being the leading member state of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). Category:Russia (Rise of Russia as superpower) Category:Nations (Rise of Russia as superpower) Category:Rise of Russia as superpower